Read in Catalan

It's become a regular feature of Barça's home games. Today, before their team's Champions League fixture against Inter Milan at Camp Nou, FC Barcelona fans unfurled a banner bearing a political message: "Only dictatorships jail peaceful political leaders".

 

Following the 2017 provisional detention of Catalan civil and political leaders after the independence push, Barça fans have made a habit of using the time before kick-off to make political statements. Today this is particularly significant, being likely the penultimate game at the stadium before the sentences are released by Spain's Supreme Court in the trial of the detained leaders.

pancarta camp nou barça inter bernat aguilar

Photo: Bernat Aguilar

This wasn't the only such incident during the match: at minute 17:14, pro-independence fans shouted "independence" and "release political prisoners". The year 1714 saw the fall of Barcelona at the end of its siege during the War of the Spanish Succession, still commemorated by Catalonia's National Day.